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Northern Australia brace for more rain

Monday, February 01, 2010
QUEENSLAND: Strong gales whip up seas along the coast causing beach erosion from Townsville to the Gold Coast.

Emergency services were expecting the severe weather and king tides to cause major flooding and widespread damage to homes and property.

Wayne Coutes from Emergency Management Queensland (EMQ) says the former cyclone and a monsoon trough have drenched the top half of state but that is about it.

Mr Coutes says there was a lot of flash flooding but not much damage.

"Generally not too bad at all and it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been," he said.

Strong gales of up to 90 kilometres an hour have whipped up seas along the coast causing beach erosion from Townsville to the Gold Coast.

Weather bureau forecaster Ben Annells says the system will continue to head across central and southern Queensland over the next few days.

"We are seeing quite a few showers coming through the far south-east corner of the state as the whole sort of system reaches its peak," he said.

"Then we will start to see the conditions ease during Tuesday and Wednesday as the low tends to drift towards the channel country area and most of the rain will contract down to the border and New South Wales."

"It's basically going to move into the channel country, so we are going to see the weather focus shift from the central areas of the state down into the Wide Bay-Burnett area and extending into the southern interior - the Warrego Maranoa into Charleville and Roma and possibly into even into the far eastern channel country as well."

Lifeguards have described conditions on Gold Coast beaches today as rugged.

Chief lifeguard Warren Young says this morning's king tide is expected to peak at around 10am AEST.

He says there is an onshore wind, a metre-and-a-half of swell and conditions are unstable.

"There is a little bit of wave-out erosion but so far so good," he said.

"There is ... more volume of water coming in and more going out so lifeguards are aware of that.

"We just check the rips, but as I said before, check with lifeguards before you go in and check the beaches are open."

However, Mr Young says lifeguards have closed two beaches at Palm Beach and Coolangatta because of high tides and unstable conditions.

He says it is unsuitable for swimming at those beaches and the situation will be reviewed throughout the day.

Meanwhile, the torrential rain has damaged beaches in central Queensland.

Saint Lawrence landowner Bevan Ross says the beach Clairview took a big hammering.

"There's a lot of foreshore has been destroyed up along the beach," he said.

"The oak trees have been wiped out along the beach and trees have been blown over.

"A lot of sort of little gullies have sort of gouged out and washed out along the beach there at Clairview - worst it's ever been there."

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